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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - Northern Kentucky University's Infrastructure Management Institute (IMI) was a finalist in the Innovation and Promise category of the annual "Best Practices in Mobile & Wireless" Awards Program at Computerworld's Mobile and Wireless World Conference in Miami last week. That an academic institution was among the finalists may have surprised some, but not NKU Chief Information Officer and Associate Provost for Information Technology Tim Ferguson.

IMI nominated the mobility platform work it had done with the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) and its Green IT work for consideration. "Innovation with regional stewardship integrated with the academic mission seems pretty unique," Ferguson said. "The fact that the College of Informatics is doing these types of things really surprises people."

As evidence of that fact, Ferguson pointed out, the IMI was a finalist alongside organizations such as the City of Anaheim (Anaheim, Calif.), the Northrup Grumman Corporation (McLean, Va.), the Oklahoma City IT Services Dept. (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and the category?s eventual honoree, RTI International (Research Triangle Park, N.C.).

In fact, NKU was the only academic institution to be named a finalist in any of the three award categories - Business Evolution through mobilizing Field Workers, Deploying Wireless Mobility in the Enterprise (which included local finalist Roto-Rooter (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Innovation and Promise.

Ferguson said the IMI nomination was based on the significant growth of the mobility platform in the global economy. The Institute's work with mobile Wi-Fi and mobile applications for mobile consumers was recognized for the innovation and promise in this exploding IT mobile marketplace. "The TANK project continues to be a platform of innovation for the College of Informatics and the IMI," Ferguson said. "Using bleeding-edge technologies and testing them in the real world, our students are getting exposure that they will struggle to find anywhere else." The TANK project was funded by a grant received from Sen. Jim Bunning.

That this cutting-edge work is being done doesn't surprise people, he said, but that it is being done at a higher education institution does. "Providing apps and data where and when people need them is an entire shift in paradigm of a mobile workforce," Ferguson said. "All of this is about the future and where technology is going. People at the conference were surprised that the College of Informatics and the IMI are all over this area."

Award criteria included such things as positive impact on the organization units, substantive customer impact and provision of a strategic advantage to the organization while anticipating and accommodating the deployment of future mobile and wireless initiatives. Judges included representatives from Onstar; Dorfman Pacific; Baptist Health; Continental Airlines, Inc.; New York State Unified Court System; Computerworld; Air National Guard; Wound Technology Network, Inc.; TheInfoPro; Saint Luke's Health System; and Landstar.

(May 2008) – The Commonwealth Office of Technology (COT) presented the third annual Best of Kentucky awards at the 2008 Kentucky Digital Summit, April 22, at the Embassy Suites in Lexington.

The summit, co-sponsored each year by COT and Government Technology Magazine, recognizes outstanding individuals and programs that have made information technology contributions to the public sector. Each of the following peer-nominated award winners was chosen from almost 50 nominees:

Visionary Award -- Lorna S. Jones, Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and Timothy C. Ferguson, Northern Kentucky University.

Best Application Serving a Public Organization -- Career Opportunities System; Carla Hawkins and Barbara Barnes, Personnel Cabinet.

Best Application Serving the Public -- e3.ky.gov; Ann Riggs and Gail Hiley, Education Cabinet; Stuart Johnson, Sharon Buchanan and Jill Thompson, Council on Post Secondary Education.

Best Application Serving the Public -- Telecheck; David Bruce and Chip Quarles, Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Continued... For the rest of the story, click on the Techlines logo above this story

(March 28, 2008) – The region’s first wide-ranging, free mobile Wi-Fi service, formerly available on a handful of TANK routes, has been expanded. Passengers on nearly ˝ of TANK’s fixed-route fleet, including 5 express routes and 4 local routes, can now access the free service.

The project was originally launched as a mobile Lily Pad, with mobile, wireless Internet access available free to all riders on 20 TANK buses in June 2007. The service has been so successful, NKU and TANK partnered to expand the program, more than doubling the available buses.

The expansion of TANK’s Mobile Wi-Fi is phase two of a four-year $1.6 million Congressionally Directed Appropriation secured by U.S. Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) for NKU’s College of Informatics. The project is being administered by the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) over a four-year period and focuses on transportation technology research.

“I am pleased to have helped NKU and TANK with this technology to help riders stay connected to the Internet,” said Senator Bunning. “Bringing Wi-Fi to TANK shows NKU’s sharp minds at work, and the people of Northern Kentucky will benefit greatly by this partnership.”

The research conducted by NKU for the pilot project can be used by the FTA to improve transportation resources in other regions throughout the country. TANK’s Mobile Wi-Fi is the first phase of the pilot project and research being conducted by NKU’s College of Informatics.

David Hirsch, Program Director for NKU, led a team of faculty and students from NKU’s College of Informatics to create the innovative system that provides the mobile Wi-Fi service on the buses. “NKU came to TANK with this idea, and we believe the success of this partnership will allow Northern Kentucky to leapfrog over many metropolitan regions in the level of technology and quality of public transportation we provide our community,” said Andrew Aiello, TANK Deputy General Manager.

The pilot project hits a bullseye in two targets of the Vision 2015 report adopted a year ago as a roadmap for Northern Kentucky’s future. Vision 2015 pursues a goal of one electronic platform for the region that is in alignment with colleges in the area. Vision 2015 also embraces a viable regional public transportation system as a must-have for Northern Kentucky’s economic growth and vitality. Both a viable e-community and good public transit are considered imperatives for attracting creative talent and sustaining a high quality of life in the region.

NKU’s College of Informatics chose TANK as the platform and partner for the Mobile Wi-Fi project. It chose Lily Pad as a partner for the Wi-Fi branding and launch. The Mobile Wi-Fi is one piece of the research project, and more elements and partners will be announced at a later date.

One goal of both TANK and the NKU researchers in this project is to increase bus ridership. “In particular, this second phase of the project will help us attract even more students at NKU to ride TANK. Over the last year, we have tried very hard to appeal to NKU students – we have a U-Pass agreement with NKU allowing all active students and faculty to ride free; and now we have outfitted all of our buses that serve campus with mobile wi-fi,” said Gina Douthat, director of communications and development for TANK. “Students can do homework, visit websites, engage in social media such as MySpace and Facebook while on the bus. We believe this service will appeal to college students.”

How the technology works: The wireless connection used in TANK’s Mobile Wi-Fi project applies previous research and is the first innovative application of this technology in the region. It is based on cellular technology, and takes advantage of the increased speed and relevance of cellular networks. The faculty and students at NKU worked with wireless vendors to design the architecture of the project. They built and evaluated solutions, then enhanced those – performing back-end software development.

The connection uses cellular technology to communicate with the Internet. The cellular-based data card feeds the digital data to a cellular router, which then sends a Wi-Fi broadcast signal out through a bus-area-network, or BAN. This allows riders to connect to this network in exactly the same way they connect to their home or work Wi-Fi network. Because the technology is cellular-based, the wireless connection remains mobile. Utilizing funding from the federal grant , NKU’s College of Informatics is able to provide the Wi-Fi service free to all bus riders on the routes and buses where it has been installed during this pilot program.

When bus riders turn on their Wi-Fi enabled laptops or PDAs and search for a wireless connection, the TANK Mobile Wi-Fi bus-area-network will be listed. Users will simply need to accept the terms of usage and then will be connected to the free wireless service anytime they are riding a TANK bus enabled with the Wi-Fi technology.

TANK riders who use the Mobile Wi-Fi will be invited to comment and provide feedback on the service through a short survey. Feedback from the Mobile Wi-Fi users is an important element in the overall research project. The feedback will be used by the NKU researchers as they test, benchmark and configure the technology going forward, and will be used in their research reports to the FTA.

Routes where Mobile Wi-Fi is now available: • Route 1X – Florence Express/Union • Route 2X – Airport Express • Route 5 – City Heights/Covington • Route 8 – Eastern Ave. • Route 11 – Ft. Thomas & NKU • Route 25 – Alexandria & NKU • Route 25X – Alexandria Express • Route 30X – Independence Express • Route 32X – Burlington Express TANK also will provide free wireless service at the following TANK Park & Ride locations: • Madison Pike • Alexandria Pike • Houston Road

About NKU’s College of Informatics: The College of Informatics unites business, communication and computer technologies to help students understand the changing face of technology in the business world. The College’s goal is to graduate students who are savvy about information technology, who are accomplished in communications and who are intellectually agile “renaissance people” for the information age. Learn more about the College of Informatics at informatics.nku.edu.

About TANK: The Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky is an integral part of the Northern Kentucky community, providing public transit service to Boone, Campbell, and Kenton Counties as well as downtown Cincinnati for more than 30 years. Close to 4 million passengers each year rely on the more than 100 TANK buses throughout the region to get them where they need to be. TANK is committed to providing safe, reliable, customer-oriented transportation for the people of our community. TANK’s commitment extends to addressing current and future needs of the community. A major component of this commitment involves keeping abreast of advanced technologies and to providing services which will improve traffic flow, protect the environment and assist in the economic development of the Northern Kentucky region. TANK is on the web at www.tankbus.org.